That was lovely.....thanks for sharing. Kathy

My SIL and I saw it yesterday. 2 people with no previous experience-neither of us had seen a theatrical performance, or a previous movie. I vaguely knew what the plot was, she vaguely knew it had been released as a film sometime awhile ago. So. Neither of us liked it much. Sorrysorrysorry, but this is a very honest reaction from a non-Les Mis fan. We didn't quite realize it was literally a filming of a musical theatrical production. So the fact that there was almost no spoken dialogue, that the sets were clearly CGI generated, and that there was an utter lack of any film-style narrative, character development, or explanation of backstory meant that for us, it was mostly a very long couple of hours listening to a lot of singing of songs we didn't know interspersed with trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the plot. We both thought Anne Hathaway was fantastic, but again had no idea that her role was, in film terms, little more than an extended cameo. She was brought in, sacked, humiliated, mutilated (although how come she had her front teeth back in when she sang the Dream song?!?!?), belted out a showstopper, and died. It was nice to see her later as a ghost, especially with her hair combed. The other performers: Hugh Jackman is adorable and sang well. Russell Crowe was in the opinion of my SIL pretty sexy. Amanda Seyfrid's singing voice is SOOOO high pitched; I kept waiting for her to veer off into Minnie Riperton territory. Neither of us really understood what the heck was wrong with Javert; at one point my SIL whispered to me 'that dude needs to get a hobby or some therapy'. Why did he suddenly appear out of uniform toward the end? What was that group of young guys fighting about? How did Jean Valjean become a mayor, and then where the heck did he hide out all that time? How could Cosette and Marius fall in love just by looking at each other? Why was Eponine suddenly in drag? When will it be over? Oops, last question was rhetorical. However, unfortunately the report from this Les Miz virgin is a pretty frank thumbs down. I truly don't mean to offend the fans, but neither of us were impressed. Oh wait, we did enjoy the Helena Bonham Carter/Sacha Baron Cohen characters; now that was some funny stuff. It did accomplish one of my goals, which is to see as many of the presumptive award nominee films as possible. So there is that to report :). Ann

The movie is worth seeing for Streep's performance. She accurately captures the endearing goofiness of Julia, even down to the awkward body language and that weird voice that sometimes would drift into an unmodulated screech. Stanley Tucci is excellent as well. I found the structure of the movie a tad strained, though. Putting those two stories together--well, the parallels seemed artificially strained at times, or at the very least unbalanced. The portion of the movie dedicated to the lives of a couple of struggling NYC yuppies just isn't as interesting as the story of a diplomat and his feisty wife (who will soon revolutionize American cuisine) living in postwar Paris. If the Streep scenes are fresh figs and Sauternes, the NYC scenes are Fig Newtons and skim milk. And, when the movie drifts away from cuisine into some political/social commentary, it does so in Hollywood's typical preachy hectoring tone. But that's a minor cavil. Fred Astaire movies weren't known for consistency and logical plots, either, but they were enjoyable. Have a glass of decent bubbly before the show and enjoy this confection. As Julia would say, "Bon..." oh, you know the rest.

I am looking for The Father, hoping to find it here. My Mom had Alzheimers for 15 years-she passed at 80 years of age(21 yrs ago)...she didn't know any of us from about age 73-now, my 69 yr old sister is exhibiting dementia symptoms ( has been for about 3 yrs)-I am thinking that by age 72 or so, she will no longer be as able physically or mentally as she is currently. She has gone downhill physically over the past year, terribly. Myself-no one knows what the odds are regarding my ending up with this disease. I am "forgetful" at times, and am very much aware of my forgetfulness-but not any worse than most my age-my son, only 42,has a much worse memory on a daily basis than I have.